Login

The aim of this website is to share the research of the unidentified finds from the Temple Mount Sifting Project with knowledgeable community all over the world.

One of the major challenges of this project is identifying and dating the artifacts in spite of their being found out-of-context. In addition, the fragmentary and broken condition of many of the finds makes this task even more difficult. Due to our acquaintance with the material culture of Jerusalem and of the land of Israel throughout its generations, we manage to identify and date most of the finds, but many others are only partly identified or remain a total enigma. Even in ordinary archaeological excavations similar problems arise, but on a smaller scale. Often finds are retrieved from fills or accumulated washed earth that contain many out-of-context finds from a very wide span of time periods. In many cases the archaeologist needs the help of his colleagues with expertise in various archaeological fields to identify those finds.

Since our current research is dealing with archaeological finds from the Temple Mount – these finds being the only material from the Temple Mount that is accessible for archaeological study – we concluded that, in order to increase our ability to identify them, we should enlist the help of the world wide community of scholars via the internet. Therefore, we have established this website in which we will upload from time to time images of artifacts about which we need more information.

In this website visitors are able to view photos of various unidentified artifacts that were found at the Temple Mount Sifting Project and comment on those about which they are familiar. They may share their thoughts or comment on thoughts of others. Visitors who contribute significant information about artifacts will be credited in the final report of the project finds.

The website allows visitors to access the artifacts in several ways: items most recently uploaded, items with recent comments, or by conducting searches according to various types of artifacts.

IMPORTANT NOTE: All photos and information in this website are copyrighted. All rights for use of photos and for scientific publication are restricted to Gabriel Barkay and Zachi Dvira, the project directors under the auspices of Bar-Ilan University .